In 1992, the Buttes Area Council, Golden Empire Council and the Mount Lassen Area Council merged as a result of Western Region reorganization. The new Council was given the name of "Golden Empire Council". The council's headquarters was established in Sacramento, California, with field offices established in: Redding, California; Chico, California; and Marysville, California.

As a result of this merger, the national office of The dictated that the new council would have until January 1, 1993 to merge the 3 lodges. Wil Conner was named as the Lodge Adviser for the new lodge. To prepare for the upcoming merger, Wil Conner, lodge adviser, drew up five merger agreements. Each merger agreement was distributed to the individual lodges (Kowaunkamish Lodge, Mayi Lodge and Tehama Lodge). Each lodge was given time to review the agreements before scheduling a meeting. Several meetings were held where the agreements were discussed and plans were made to hold a work fellowship at Beale Air Force Base to approve and accept the merger.

The work fellowship was scheduled for October 1992 with Matt Conner selected as the Fellowship Chairman and Frank Glick was appointed as the Fellowship Adviser. The fellowship was later rescheduled for December 11, 12, 13, 1992 due to arising conflicts with schedules, facilities and planning. Frank Glick designed and ordered a patch for the fellowship. It served as a reminder of the three lodges that were merging and the formation of the new lodge #47.

One hundred fifty scouts and scouters converged on Beale Air Force Base to take part in the new lodge's first fellowship. Mayi Lodge served as the host lodge. After several meetings on Friday night and Saturday morning, a merger agreement was announced and approved by the three existing lodge council of chiefs. It detailed out a one-year plan to integrate the three lodges into one "super lodge." Each of the existing lodges would be renamed as tribes, with the tribe chiefs serving with the elected lodge chiefs to form the lodge council of chiefs. Each tribe would be further broken down into chapter and the chapters had the opportunity to divide into clans. The clans would service the rural areas where travel distances would prohibit membership from participating in chapter events. Was selected as the Kowaunkamish Tribe Adviser, Richard Lozano was selected as the Mayi Tribe Adviser and Bob Nelson was selected as the Tehama Tribe Adviser.

One of the major concerns addressed at the fellowship was the distribution of the existing lodge's funds and how to fund the new lodge. It was agreed that each of the existing lodges would give a portion of their funds to the new lodge. The existing lodges would keep the funds in a chapter account for their membership's use. All money would be controlled through the lodge adviser for finance.

Saturday night of the fellowship the first lodge officers were elected. Each of the existing lodges would have a block of votes they could cast in any way they saw fit. P.T. McEwen, Section W3B Chief, Wil Conner, Lodge Adviser and Jim McDaniel, Section W3B Adviser were present to officiate the election.

Brian Osterhout was elected as the first lodge chief. Dan Householder was elected as the Vice-Chief for Program. Coady Pruett was elected as the Vice-Chief for Communication. Ketan Patel was elected as the Lodge Secretary/Treasurer. The lodge council of chiefs were convened on Sunday morning and the by-laws were approved.

The council of chiefs set future meeting dates and elected to extend the period for nominations for lodge name, newspaper name and totem.

In January, the lodge council of chiefs elected to name the new lodge "Amangi Nacha" with the Quail as the totem. The newspaper was named "Se-Kah-Ke Squawks." Gerry Albright was named as the first adviser. It was a bi-monthly newspaper printed at Herburger Publishing in Galt, California.

The lodge printed two press runs of the flap. The S-1 was a fundraiser flap. It was larger than the general press run and was limited in its production. The S-3 was a general issue flap to be worn by all members.

Wil Conner appointed his advisers to help him serve the lodge. They were: Bob Nelson, Administration Adviser; Frank Glick, Trading Post Adviser; Matt Conner, Newspaper Adviser; Craig Tanner, Inductions Adviser; and Bill Rogers, Camping Adviser. The lodge held its first officer training in 1993 at Camp Pollock. It was called the "Takachsin." The training was modeled after the Mayi Lodge's "Takachsin" program and the National Leadership Seminar outline.

Adam Craig was elected as the second lodge chief at the fellowship held at Beale Air Force Base and Doug Wacker was appointed as the Lodge Program Adviser.

On August 28, 1994, the lodge Council of Chiefs voted to change the lodge by-laws and restructure the lodge. The tribe system was discontinued. This was done to "bring the chapters closer" to the lodge and facilitate the process. The lodge was now composed of 13 chapters. Doug Wacker was selected as the next Lodge Adviser in October 1995. Also in October 1995 Greg Frith was elected as the lodge chief. Bob Nelson was appointed as the Lodge Finance Adviser and Larry Frith was appointed as the Lodge Program Adviser. In October 1996, Josh Ramsey was elected as the lodge chief and Bob Nelson was named as the new Lodge Adviser.

In October 1997 Jeff Allen was elected as the lodge chief with Bob Nelson continuing as Lodge Adviser. In October 1998, Carl Krigbaum was elected as the lodge chief, with Bob Nelson continuing as Lodge Adviser.

Then in October 1999, Lewis McCrary was elected as the current lodge chief, and Larry Frith was named the new Lodge Adviser.

Kowaunkamish Lodge History

Butts Area Council First chartered its Order of the Arrow Lodge on June 1, 1948. The original name of the lodge was Tribe of La Porte, which was taken from the camp honor society it replaced.

The Lodge renewed its lapsed charter in 1950, and changed its name to Kowaunkamish, meaning "my service to you" in the language of the Narragansett Indians. The Lodge totem, the little devil, represents camping, hiking, wildlife, Scouting skills and service to others. The Lodge served a small Concil territory consisting of Colusa, Sutter, Yuba, and southern Butte counties, the Lodge newspaper was called "Drum Beat."

Among the highlights of Kowaunkamish Lodge history are the 12-C Conferences it hosted in 1959 at Beale Air Force Base; in 1964 at the Colusa Fairgrounds; and in 1972 at Beal Air Force Base.

In 1983, Kowaunkamish Lodge went to a 3 chapter system. Until this time they were the only Lodge in the Section without chapters. In 1984, they changed their Lodge flap to meet national standards. Also in 1984, Kowaunkamish was one of 2 Lodges within Section W3B to obtain the Brotherhood Attainmnent Award.

Mayi Loge History

From 1926 to 1941, Camp Audrain near Echo Summit served as the summer camp for the Golden Empire Council. The camp honor society used at Camp Audrain was called the Tribe of Tahoe. Members included Braves, Warriors, Medicine men and Chiefs. The Tribe of Tahoe conducted all of its activities at camp, so when Camp Audrain was closed because of World War II, the Tribe of Tahoe was effectively disbanded.

In the fall of 1946, Field Scout Executive Jim Wright called a meeting of Perry Baker, Karl Kuhn, Charles McClung, Frank Palmer, Del Springer, and Charles Thomas, adults who were all Chiefs in the Tribe of Tahoe. At this meeting, the Order of the Arrow program was introduced and explained. The organizing committee learned that National leaders were recommending the program to all Councils. The committee decided to adopt the Order of the Arrow as our Council's honor camping society, and began work in forming the new lodge.Steve Cannon, Bob Martin, and Norman Kuhn, all young men, were selected as the Lodge's first candidates, and that fall went throughout their Ordeal at a Stockton Conclave. In the Spring of 1947, the six adults on the organizing committee with other young men, underwent the Ordeal.

The new Lodge chose the leaping Chinook salmon as its totem and the name Mayi, which means Salmon in the language of the Maidu. The name and totem were chosen because they would be representative of the Indian background of the area, the Salmon being a principal food source of the native Maidu Indians.

Mayi Lodge grew quickly as more units elected candidates and the Scouting program grew overall in members. The Lodge organized 2 Ordeals a year, one in late spring, and one in early fall. As more candidates were elected, it was decided to split the spring Ordeal into 2 and add more spring Ordeals.

In the early years, members concentrated on activities utilizing Indian Lore such as ceremonies and dancing. Ml members built complete outfits, typically of the Plains Indian variety. Indian dancing was a primary activity for the Lodge and Chapters. Mayi Lodge strived to make the operation of Area 12-C successful in the1950's. Our members served as area officers and advisers and the Lodge hosted five area conferences (1954, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1969). The Lodge also held several Lodge-wide activities beginning in the late 1950's, including the Father and Son Dinner (now the Lodge Dinner), the Camp rally and the Arrowmen's Ball.

In the 1960's our Lodge became increasingly concerned with meeting the goal of camp promotion. Lodge leaders organized projects providing service to the camping program, and produced camping promotion aids like the cooking contest, "Where to go Camping booklet," and the camp promotion slide show.

The merger of Canaku Lodge #511 into Mayi Lodge pushed the size of the Lodge to a peak of 20 chapters and over 1600 active members. Then membership in the Lodge and Scouting began to drop Chapters which were split were merged again. The membership drop was so great that it reached a low of about 500 members in December 1976.

In the mid and late 1970's, Mayi Lodge started to improve its program in three areas: induction, training, and communications. In the induction process, unnecessary ritual was replaced with a more meaningful Ordeal. A comprehensive training program for Chapter leaders was created in 1977 called Takachsin training. Communications were improved through the improvement of the Mayi Lodge newsletter, Smoke Signals, which became better written, more frequently used and more attractively designed.

Tehama Lodge History

Header End Body Start Tehama Lodge #485 has been an active lodge from the very beginning. It hosted the 1952 Area 12-C Conference at Camp Lassen, even before its first charter was issued (December 30). Tehama was the name of ta Copenhan Indian Tribe: the name given to the extinct volcano that once existed where Mount Lassen has since risen. The Lodge totem was Mount Lassen, a currently existing, dormant volcano. Since 1952, Tehama has hosted 2 major inter-Lodge activities. The 1970 Area 12-C Conference, at Bristow Hood Scout Reservation, and the fourth annual Section W3B Conclave, in 1976 at Camp Lassen. Tehama Lodge is divided into three Chapters: Maidu, Wintun, and Yana (The three local Indian Tribes). The Lodge newsletter was named "Brave Talk." The Lodge was chartered by the Mount Lassen Area Council, which served Butte, Glenn, Shasta, Tehama, and Trinity Counties.